The domain name servers (DNS) to which the invention more particularly relates reproduce telephone numbers such as E.164.arpa numbers.
In these servers, each name is determined from the E.164 format destination telephone number contained in the request coming from the requesting machine. Each domain name server includes records in memory associated with names and areas that it manages and/or references to other domain name servers for names and areas that it does not manage.
According to the ENUM protocol, when a message requesting to read a name reaches a server managing the area that might contain that name, the server returns to the requesting machine the records that are associated with that name and that consist of resource identifiers (URI) such as a fax number, a mobile telephone number, an electronic mail address, for example.
Accordingly, name servers may receive many read and write requests, including erroneous requests for which the name does not exist in the domain name servers.
In the event of a request for an unknown domain name, in some circumstances the domain name server may not respond to the requesting machine. The fact that the requested name does not exist can then be detected only if a time-out from the requesting machine sending the request to failure to receive any response expires. Also, processing erroneous requests overloads and slows down the processing of valid requests by the name servers, which is a problem that must be addressed.